The Kabal of the Gaping Gash Strikes Back!

What follows is a battle report from a game I played last night with my Dark Eldar, the Kabal of the Gaping Gash. I just wanted to exhibit my tactical genius or lack of. The report itself is a copy and paste from my mate's blog Imperius Dominatus. I take no credit.

Battle Report: Daemons vs Dark Eldar - 1,250

Rematch with Poddy from our last Daemons vs D.E game. Poddy has some new tactics up his sleeve, so will be interesting to see how this pans out.

I have also thrown in my Soul Grinder as a. I want to use my shiny painted model and b. I had way too many Plaguebearers last time.

Daemons - 1,250 points

HQ

Herald of Tzeentch - disc of tzeentch, we are legion, master of sorcery & bolt of tzeentch
Herald of Tzeentch - disc of tzeentch, we are legion, master of sorcery & bolt of tzeentch
Herald of Tzeentch - disc of tzeentch, we are legion, master of sorcery & bolt of tzeentch

Elite

5 x Flamers of Tzeentch
5 x Flamers of Tzeentch

Troops

5 x Plaguebearers of Nurgle
5 x Plaguebearers of Nurgle
5 x Plaguebearers of Nurgle

Fast Attack

5 x Screamers of Tzeentch
5 x Screamers of Tzeentch

Heavy Support

Soul Grinder - phelgm

Dark Eldar - 1,250 points

HQ

Haemonculus - liqufier gun

Elite

4 x Trueborn w/ Venom - 4 x blasters - Venom w/ splinter cannon

Troops

5 x Kabalite Warriors w/ Venom - blaster - Venom w/ splinter cannon
5 x Kabalite Warriors w/ Venom - blaster - Venom w/ splinter cannon
5 x Kabalite Warriors w/ Venom - blaster - Venom w/ splinter cannon
9 x Wyches w/ Raider - shardnet & impaler, haywire grenades - Hekkatrix w/ agoniser

Fast Attack

6 x Reaver Jetbikes - 2 x heat lances

Heavy Support

Ravager - nightshield
Ravager - nightshield

Game: hammer & anvil + the scouring

Warlord Traits - I got the one which gives acute senses to outflank while Poddy got the -1 to my reserves, brilliant!

Deployment

We're only using 4 objectives in this game as we are playing on a 4x4 board. Basically objectives are placed two along the normal table edges.

Poddy wins the roll off for deployment side and deployment, he choses the right table edge and deploys first. Poddy spreads his D.E in a line along the table, maximising the distance. This will isolate my Daemons if I deep strike in a location.



* Tactical Notes

Ok, Poddy has a weird deployment, but it will work nicely for him. As he has spread his stuff out it means I can only attack in one area or spread my stuff thin; something I won't do. If I do attack in one location, then he can easily speed away and gun me down from a distance. This is going to be a interesting game .

Turn 1

Poddy moves everything flat out and spaces all his units out.

My turn, I split my waves and get three Heralds, two Flamers and two Screamers first turn. Unfortunately my deep strike is rubbish and all units scatter! Unit of Screamers land in the large centre ruin, luckily only one fails dangerous terrain armour save. Unit of Flamers mishap, which Poddy smartly drops into the ruin bottom right corner; another wound thanks to dangerous terrain.

Shooting; both Screamers go flatout and sweep the Trueborn Venom and another one; both lose a hull point. Chicken-man (blue Herald) splits fire into a Ravager and Trueborn Venom, but he is rubbish and does nothing. Five-face (pink Herald) and Eye ball Paul (pink Herald) split fire into the Ravager far side and the Trueborn Venom, but again they are rubbish. Flamers which didn't mishap fire warpfire into the Reavers who are in bottom left corner; only one remains after some serious dakka, who passes morale test.











* Tactical Notes

Frustrating that I could finish those Venoms off and get first blood and also seriously annoying about scatter dice, but 40k is a dice game and all you can do is roll with it . I need to make the best of what I can and take it from there.

Next turn I am not expecting to get all my units in thanks to the warlord trait Poddy has. But Plaguebearers will go for objectives while Screamers and Flamers tackle lance weaponry along with Heralds; I need to make it safe for the Soul Grinder.

Turn 2

Poddy moves pretty much all his force flat out towards top right corner. Only two units move 6", a Venom and Ravager along the left flank.

Shooting; Ravager, Venom and squad inside open up on Five-Face, he has a single wound left and refuses to die.

My turn; I roll for reserves and shockingly everything arrives! But carrying on as normal, everything scatters except for a unit of Plaguebearers and Soul Grinder. One Plaguebearer unit mishaps, which Poddy puts in the same ruin as the Flamers, one Plague dies to dangerous terrain, however Poddy has put them right by a objective and where I want them; thanks, mate! .

Flamers which blasted the Reavers bound up to the Ravager by my board edge, Chicken-Man follows behind. One unit of Screamers sweeps round to support them and also hoping to snack on some D.E scum while the other unit moves towards the left flank. Other Heralds hold position.

Shooting; Flamers bbq the Ravager and it is smoked; first blood to me. Unit of Screamers moving towards left flank slash attack a Venom and take off a hull point. Heralds blast into Venoms with one hull point left from last turn; both go down, both units pass morale, though Trueborn bail out into a ruin and I cannot draw LOS to them. Screamers supporting the Flamers and Chicken-Man slash attack the Warriors who bailed out the Venom, which was wrecked by the Grinder; all Warriors die when they get cut to bits by daemonic claws and teeth.







* Tactical Notes

Ok, while deep strike was still a flop, at least my units are in position to get objectives etc. Good news is I also got first blood and done a reasonable amount of damage this turn; unit of Warriors, two Venoms and a Ravager are all toast.

It's not all gravy though, I like a mong I forgot to move the Flamers who mishapped out the ruin; doh!

Next turn I'll rock both Flamers up and one unit should be able to bbq something. Screamers will assault and wrap the Wyches while the other unit assaults the Ravager, maybe the one hull point Venom as I might be able to wrap it.

Turn 3

Wyches bail out and move towards the Screamers by the Chicken-Man, while their ride backs away. A Venom lingers behind to support them as does the solo Reaver. Trueborn move up through terrain to get better LOS while the remaining Ravager and one hull point Venom move so Screamers do not auto hit.

Shooting; Screamers with Chicken-Man get blasted and only four remain. Five-Face eats splinter rifles and blaster and is smoked; Warriors gain a pain token. Paul gets blasted by splinter cannons, he does well on saves and only loses a single wound. I think that's it.

Assault; Wyches charge the Screamers, the Wyches also re-roll to wound thanks to their combat drugs. They totally deck the Screamers and the Wyches consolidate away. Poddy gains a point for destruction of a fast attack unit.

Daemons third turn; Soul Grinder scoots up ready to tackle the Wyches while Flamers and Chicken-Man move up to support. Plaguebearers on the right flank move and capture both the objectives I put down. Paul moves up a bit more while Screamers close by move to multi assault the Ravager and Venom.

Shooting; Chicken-Man blasts the Trueborn and empty Raider; Raider goes boom and one Trueborn dies. Paul blasts the last Ravager and one hull point Venom, but flops. Flamers decide to blast the single Reaver as I am confident the Soul Grinder will mash up the Wyches; Reaver dies and I gain a point.

Assault; Soul Grinder charges and prepares to rip them a new one, but wait, utter balls up! I forgot the Wychs have haywires! You can guess what happened, boom Soul Grinder, at least took down a Wych in the explosion. Epic fail by me! Screamers multi assault the Venom and Ravager and both go down, the Venom explodes and only three dudes remain, who fail morale.





* Tactical Notes

That's two cock ups this game; one a epic fail. I totally forgot about haywire and thrown the Soul Grinder to it's death. Now the Wyches will charge Paul and lets face it, Paul isn't hardcore in combat.

Next turn I'll move the Flamers up to blast the Trueborn while the Chicken-Man tackles the Haemonculus.

Turn 4

Poddy scoots the last Venom behind the ruin on the left flank while the Haemonculus hides away in terrain. Wyches rock up towards Paul and are looking to pound his face in.

Shooting; Venom and Wyches blast Paul, he has 3 wounds left now. Trueborn blast Paul too, but they fail completely. Screamers get blasted to bits by Kabalite Warriors and are destroyed; Poddy gains a point.

Assault; Wyches assault Paul, Paul fails to hit in overwatch. Wyches lay the smackdown, but Paul survives with one wound!

Ok, my turn. Paul is locked in assault and is going to die this turn. The Wyches will then consolidate and beat Plaguebearer face. So I may as well move the Plagues towards the 4 point objective and at least contest it.

Flamers rock round along with Chicken-Man while Plaguebearers move up and claim the 4 point objective - note these are the fastest Plagues known as they always seem to move 6", maybe it is because they look like Purifiers? lol.

Shooting; Chicken-Man blasts the Trueborn and another one snuffs it. Flamers dakka the last Venom, it is down to a single hull point.

In combat Eye Ball Paul gets his face beat in and Poddy gains a point.







* Tactical Notes

Well, it has all gone a bit sour and once again I made a mistake; I forgot about the Haemy! But, I still have control of majority of the objectives and Poddy's warlord is easy pickings.

Next turn I expect the Plagues who have the 4 point objective to be turned to mush thanks to poison or Wych face beating. The last Venom will no doubt zoom down to contest one of the objectives the Plagues hold, but I have left the lagging Flamer unit behind to intercept them if Poddy does do that. The Haemonculus is no doubt dead meat.

Turn 5

Haemonculus walks out and primers liquifier gun while the Venom moves 12" towards Poddy's table edge. Wyches move towards the Plaguebearers on the 4 point objective.

Shooting; Haemonculus bbqs a single Flamer while Trueborn and Kabalite Warriors soften up the Plaguebearers. Venom moves flat out and is now half way across the board.

Assault; Wyches beat up the Plaguebearers and control the 4 point objective.

Ok, my possible last turn and I need to get some points here. I need to stop that Venom, so Flamers bound over to deal with that.

Shooting is short and sweet; Flamers bbq the Haemonculus and other Flamers bbq the Venom, which is wrecked; squad passes pinning test.

We roll for it and it is game over at this point. Daemons got 8 points (first blood, slay the warlord, killed fast attack unit, 3 point objective & 2 point objective) while Dark Eldar got 7 points (slay the warlord, killed 2 fast attack units & 4 point objective)





Summary

Excellent game with Poddy! It was quite a bit of cat and mouse, but I caught up and we have a serious slugfest.

I made some silly mistakes this turn; like forgetting to move Flamers and going have the vulnerable Haemonculus. Worst mistake was charging a unit of Wyches with haywires with my Soul Grinder!

Poddy played well and has learnt a lot from his last game with Daemons. I think instead of zooming away with everything, he should have opened fire a bit more and blasted Eye Ball Paul to bits and get first blood and slay the warlord in a single swoop.

I agree with his thinking that you held back and away a bit too much.

The way I'd play a list like that is to spread out my deployment like you did and then speed to a flank to put all of my threats into one side however with daemons they only start with half their force so go absolutely balls out and put your entire force into killing as much as you can before the reserves start showing up the other thing with daemons is mistrike of the unit isn't likely to do much damage to your vehicles with shooting don't be afraid to set them up in the open somewhere you can easily get firepower on them again this is better to do with the first lot than the rest bit unlucky all the reserves came in at once though.

First few games I had against daemons I lost spectacularly because I backed up in preperation of the 2nd wave which gave the first time to consolidate and chop me into tiny pieces